The University of Utah spent nearly a quarter-million dollars more than the Legislature had appropriated for the research institution to support and expand SafeUT, an app in which students can anonymously chat with crisis counselors.
Lawmakers earmarked $550,000 to last through fiscal year 2018, which ended in June, so the school could hire four licensed clinicians, a supervisor and two outreach development specialists to work on a text and tip line. The university still did not have enough staff to cover the thousands of messages flooding the popular app each day, so it hired more social workers.
“The response to the app has been huge,” said U.